Field Theory: 25 Things you need to be a man
191 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 … 4 5 6 7 8 Newer→ Last
-
that you shouldn't necessarily be dependent on someone else to get stuff done for you.
And why should that not apply equally to women?
Indeed. I think it'd have been better phrased as "stuff you should be able to do", but then they wouldn't have been able to bring the masculinity lure in.
Personally, I'm just astonished that basic cooking isn't on the list. I mean, how often do you actually bleed your brakes, versus how often you eat dinner? Surely the ability to cook dinner is more useful day-to-day than the ability to cackhandedly perform a mechanical repair with serious safety consequences?
As someone said much earlier the Traditional Man skills are about "doing things", which I put at the opposite end of the spectrum to "creating things".
I'm going out on a limb here, and I'm going to say that cooking bacon and eggs is much more about "doing" than "creating". Cooking can, and should, be creative, but it can also be about robotically following a recipe in order to achieve an edible result. You don't have to be creative to be a good cook; you just have to have a particular skill set associated with the preparation of food.
But that's back into quibbling about items, and as mentioned above, I don't think that's the point. It's more about the spirit of the list, man. The spirit. Yeah.
-
a landscape of social interactions, cultural symbolism and economic interdependence
Because none of that happens in the suburbs where all we rubes live?
-
Should "make your own spirits" be on the list then? :)
-
Hadyn, your thread seems to have denegrated into a hundred posts of "this popular mechanic man-thing doesn't reflect what PAS thinks of men-things". Which I suspect we all knew to start with.
I find a lot of the actual items on the Popular Mechanics list annoying - the baseline assumption that to be a man, you must be a driver, for instance.
I don't think that everyone should be a driver. I think that everyone should know how to drive, even if you never plan to. One accident or health emergency affecting someone else and knowing which end of the knobs and pedals work is going to suddenly become important.
Along with swimming.
-
*hopes I haven't just derailed this into a discussion about arts vs crafts*
-
Because none of that happens in the suburbs where all we rubes live?
I'm tempted to agree, but ... what I'm saying is that the emphasis of the suburban/rural Poular Mechanics model of handymanliness is on self-reliance and hands-on interaction with the physical world, rather than on interdependence and navigating the socioeconomic world: filleting a fish and painting the walls rather than knowing which restaurant has the freshest fish and choosing an artwork to decorate your home.
In fact, much of suburban life is (I am told) just as enmeshed in the globalised economy of specialised products and services as is urban life, and yet it often persists with a myth of rugged independence. Many people will happily call a tradesperson or order Pizza Hut, while occasionally proving their "real kiwi" credentials by having a barbecue or building a deck. The PopMech idealists perhaps share something with the "Good Life" strand of green lifestylers, tut-tutting over the modern softies who have to (gasp!) rely on other people for certain tasks rather than bleeding their own brakes or raising chooks.
Urban life doesn't give you the option: I'm hardly going to start growing potatoes in my sink, and if I tried to knock a wall through I'd get a stern letter from the body corporate. But I don't feel any less of a "man" for that, and I don't feel any pressure from ads for Supercheap Auto or Mitre 10 to confirm to some DIY mythology.
-
I'm hardly going to start growing potatoes in my sink
Nonono. You clean them in the sink. You grow them in buckets. Or decent bags.
-
much of suburban life is (I am told)
I kinda wish that someone would spill the beans on you by saying that you grew up in Levin or something. Heh. :)
I understand what you're saying about the 'ideal form' of suburbanism (I think I just invented a word), but I think it's reductive to assume that there's some kind of oppositional groupthink involved. There are plenty of suburbanites who get people to do things for them. I like my house, but I don't know how to fix anything in it, and I'm not planning to learn; I like cut grass, but I pay someone else to mow the lawn; I decorate using picture hooks, not paint. I don't think apartment living gives you the monopoly on DIY uselessness, or usefulness in other areas of life. It's an oddly impermeable line you're drawing there. I get that you're creating this Urban Sophisticate persona, and it's all very entertaining, but... yeah. I dunno. I'm probably overthinking this.
-
I kinda wish that someone would spill the beans on you by saying that you grew up in Levin or something. Heh. :)
I didn't grow up, I sprung fully-formed from an attic above Lock & Co Hatters in St James', the result of an occult experiment involving a fez, a first edition of Les Fleurs du Mal and a quart of Tanqueray.
suburbanism (I think I just invented a word)
I prefer "suburbanality" myself.
I think it's reductive to assume that there's some kind of oppositional groupthink involved. There are plenty of suburbanites who get people to do things for them.
Oh of course, and I said as much in my last comment. My point is that for suburbanites the cult of DIY is an option, and one strongly encourage by New Zild culture (and other new world cultures), whereas for urbanites it is much more limited and much less expected. If you don't have a car or an outdoors, if a property manager looks after your apartment, and if you don't feel the need to rush off to the country and kill things every weekend, then virtually everything on PopMech's list is irrelevant to being "a man".
-
Nonono. You clean them in the sink. You grow them in buckets. Or decent bags.
I neither grow nor clean potatoes. I order them as a side dish in the form of rosemary roast potatoes at Floriditas or pommes puree at Duke Carvell's No. 6 Swan Lane Emporium.
-
Looking over them again. Those lists are almost camp, so brash (not Don of course) as if to say "Wham bam I am a Man".
-
I didn't grow up, I sprung fully-formed from an attic above Lock & Co Hatters in St James', the result of an occult experiment involving a fez, a first edition of Les Fleurs du Mal and a quart of Tanqueray.
I'm a fan.
-
For the fellow Paul Kelly fans...
'Song of the Old Rake' -
I neither grow nor clean potatoes. I order them as a side dish in the form of rosemary roast potatoes at Floriditas or pommes puree at Duke Carvell's No. 6 Swan Lane Emporium.
Completely off topic, but I got a slow cooker for my birthday and used it for the first time on Tuesday to make corned beef with garlic, onions and bay leaves in the liquid.
Oh. My. God. I will never be the same again. Why isn't everything in the world cooked like that?
-
Dude, you should try lamb shanks with red wine in a slow cooker: unreal.
Suburbanites unite!
-
Dude, you should try lamb shanks with red wine in a slow cooker: unreal.
Suburbanites unite!
I think that's going on the must-try list for our slow cooker as well.
Side question: is "suburbane" a recognised adjective yet?
-
Tom:
I prefer "suburbanality" myself.
How about "Suburbistan?"
-
Mr Semmens: I am afraid that I was referring to Mr Beard. Should you feel that your honour remains impugned, then as the challenged I shall exercise my choice of weapon, and nominate rhum babas, Mr Beard to be my second in the event of indigestion.
-
We got a slow cooker because my wife wanted one and I figured hey, it was on special. It's easily paid for itself several times over. Great for stews, great for dhal.
neither grow nor clean potatoes
But what will you do when teh ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE comes? You'll wish you'd scrubbed some potatoes then, let me tell you.
-
But what will you do when teh ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE comes? You'll wish you'd scrubbed some potatoes then, let me tell you.
I believe I shall dine rather finely on BRAAAAAIIINNS! Crumbed and lightly panfried with celeriac remoulade, of course.
-
According to Russell's new sponsor, the zombie apocalypse is not coming.
Instead, this Star heralds the imminent emergence of Maitreya, the World Teacher, and the beginning phase of the total transformation of every aspect of our lives.
And there was me thinking it was a streetlight in that new subdivision out by Wainui...
-
Instead, this Star heralds the imminent emergence of Maitreya, the World Teacher, and the beginning phase of the total transformation of every aspect of our lives
No ordinary sun...
-
Dude, you should try lamb shanks with red wine in a slow cooker: unreal.
My girlfriend is a lamb shanks nut.
She doesn't read PAS and she's probably drooling anyway.
-
Here you go Kyle: say it with shanks.
-
Good recipe Stephen J - thanks! I've bookmarked it for the next time some family or friend shoots a busher lamb-
Post your response…
This topic is closed.